


Passing Ships And Crossed Currents

by swingandswirl



Series: An Officer And His Gentleman [1]
Category: Numb3rs
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-11-16
Updated: 2009-11-16
Packaged: 2017-10-03 01:20:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swingandswirl/pseuds/swingandswirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A chance encounter leads to something that will change Colby's life forever. Part of The Officer And His Gentleman verse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Passing Ships And Crossed Currents

**Conversation**

A couple of days before he's due to return to Fort Benning, Colby goes to a discreet little club in east New York, the kind that's only talked about in hushed voices and sly innuendo. This is his last chance to cut loose for a while, and he intends to enjoy every second of it.

Tantric's just his kind of place, loud music and dancing, the air reeking of smoke and sweat and sex, people fucking in dimly lit nooks. 

Colby loses himself in the beat, body moving to the music, reveling in the freedom he finds in the shadows.

**   
** **Chemistry **

He's barely been on the floor ten minutes or so when a handsome dark-haired man with a devil-may-care grin sidles up to him. He moves with a catlike grace that instantly draws Colby's eye, blatant invitation in his aquamarine gaze.

Colby accepts wordlessly, matching his movements, barely any space between them, reveling in the way the stranger's breath hitches the rare moments their bodies make contact.

They dance like that for hours, thrust and parry, each movement challenge and seduction, until finally Colby can't stand it any more and drags the other man into a heated kiss.

  
**Connection**

They barely manage to make it to his hotel room before they're tearing each others' clothes off. Colby takes him against the door, shouts muffled as they ravage each others' mouths, hands scrabbling for purchase against bare skin.  
   
They stumble to the bed and then his lover returns the favour, driving Colby wild with hands and tongue before fucking him so hard he's gonna be sore for days.

Colby knows the name he's crying out tonight will be as fake as the one he gives, but the sex is so good he can't really bring himself to give a damn.

  
**Confession**

Next morning, Colby wakes to an empty bed, the only evidence of the previous night an ache in his ass and a scrawled thank-you on his bedside drawer, a telephone number on one side.

Colby stares at it a long time before tossing it in the trash. He doesn't have room in his life for more than anonymous sex, not if he wants those General’s stars, no matter how tempting the prospect.

It's only weeks later, stuck in the barracks at Fort Benning, that he admits to himself that he wishes he'd had the courage to make that call.

  
**Classified**

Two weeks after his encounter with the handsome stranger, Colby's called to a meeting with his CO... and his CO, too.

His first thought is that his secret is out, and he's scrambling for cover stories even as Maj. Donahue slaps a 'TOP SECRET' file in front of Colby.

Turns out that he doesn't need to worry, because Merril and Donahue aren't here for classified information, aren't here to ask Colby questions he can't answer. That's not what this meeting is about.

His bosses don't want to boot him out of the service.

They want to send him to Delta. 

  
**Loss**

Colby doesn't even think about saying no. Generations of duty and honour aside, this is what he's wanted to do since he was a boy.

Oh, he knows the failure rate, knows that Delta selection and training will push him past limits he doesn't know he has. He also knows what he'll leave behind: his family, his Rangers, any chance of a normal life. He knows that once that bridge is crossed, there's no going back.

Delta Force pay might be crappy, the hours long and the work beyond dangerous, but Colby doesn't care.

He wants to save the world.

  
**Professor**

Three weeks into Delta selection, and Colby's seriously wondering about the plus points of being a superhero.

The training is sheer hell, physically and mentally, his teachers the devil incarnate on a good day. Colby's only hanging on to his sanity by the barest of threads, every trial coming closer to knocking him down. But every time he falls, he squares his shoulders, picks himself up, and pushes on, inch by excruciating inch.

He might be a hick from potato country and slow as molasses most days, but one thing Colby James Granger has never, ever been is a quitter.

  
**Starting Over**

Six months of absolutely hellish training later, and it's official. He's Delta. Colby sleepwalks through the ceremony and the party after, too tired to do anything but smile and nod.

Three weeks later, he's back at Bragg, ready to be introduced to the team he's going to be leading into battle.

Colby looks at the five men who walk in, and only years' worth of drama club prevent him from reacting at the sight of a very familiar pair of blue-green eyes.

"Colby Granger," he says.

His erstwhile lover smiles back. "Nice to meet you, Granger. I'm Andy Callahan."

**Author's Note:**

> w00t! Day One of the Evol French Exam is DONE! /Monster House voiceover
> 
> As a present to myself for not screwing it up completely, I decided to take time off from studying to write the next bit of An Officer And His Gentleman.
> 
> The title comes from the old poem about two ships passing in the night, their meetings few and far between. Colby expected the same thing to happen with Andy, but that's not how things turned out. Hence the 'crossed currents' bit.
> 
> The meeting-after-a-one-night-stand thing is a bit cliche, I admit, but the Muse will do as she pleases. Plus here Colby had a chance to make it more, one he (literally) threw away. Wherever he and Andy go from here, they will have to get past that eventually.
> 
> Also, on a slightly tangential note: I was doing up my drabble prompt tables and guess what? As of this fic, I have written a total of SIXTY-NINE drabbles, half of 'em in the past month! *dances*
> 
> Many thanks to [info]ladygray99, [info]mustangcandi, and [info]starlettmalfoy, cheerleaders and evil enablers extraordinaire. And, of course, [info]emmademarais and [info]melissima for their awesome work over at N100. *hugs* Y'all rock, all of you!


End file.
